The Lotus guys (especially Richard) are brilliant - always got time to talk, flexible with test drives, prompt at returning calls etc

Subaru? Putting me off the car tbh

Saturday: walked over to the Subaru area and spoke to Roger. When I approached him about the WRX his first comment was "oh you want the forester". Um no i don't, i want the WRX. He extolled the virtues of the extended test drive - oh yes you can have it for a couple of days no problems.

Sunday: popped back in to take the 2.5 for a test drive. Wasn't massively impressed and had a chat about the STi - its on the driveway of the owner of B&C who's gone to france for a month, but they'll get the spare keys, get it back and call me on Tuesday

Monday: Boyfriend popped in to drop the Lotus off for a few bits and he walked over to the Subaru section - spoke to a different sales guy who was incredibly patronising and implied that I couldn't actually afford a Subaru but deigned to run thru part-ex price fo the S2000 (<1 year old - who says I can't afford a Scoob !!)?. Chris asked if I could tak the STi for a couple of days as I've got a long drive on Thursday and it'd be an ideal opportunity to see if it suits my back. He was told, yes no problem at all, we'll call you on Tuesday.

Bearing in mind we are credible customers; Chris bought a Lotus from the dealership a few weeks ago and between us we have 4 cars; new Lotus, <1 year old S2000, Caterham and a Mondeo.

Tuesday: no call

Wednesday: I've just phoned and been told that they consider a 200 mile trip in their demo car "excessive". I said - "hang on, if i take the car and my back is ok chances are I will buy from you, but you're asking me to spend 30k on a car which might kill my back?" No-can-do, 200 miles is excessive. I could have it for a couple of hours maybe (so much for the 2 day extended test drive). They preferred me to go elsewhere than trouble them. I did say to them, that I had no choice but to go elsewhere, and i was told to do just that.

No wonder Subaru aren't selling any cars! I'm so angry, not only at being lied to about extended test drives, but by being treated like I was a piece of dog **** scraped off the bottom of his shoe. The sales guy I spoke to today was condescending and patronising.

Shame, as Richard is great, and the service guy we met was also superb.

Letters to the owner of B&C and Subaru are forthcoming.

 

(apologies to webmaster for swearing which has been edited out!)

 

I would recommend Subaru Gatwick !

First class service & cheaper than B & C !

(I live in Leatherhead & go to Gatwick !)

 

I found this recently with car dealers in general...

we were looking for a new car to replace the wifes 4 yr old Corolla Verso MPV...
Tried all of the following local dealers who didnt seem to care whether we bought a car or not

BMW, (made zero effort - maybe as we didnt have suits on?) VW (By far the worst - 'can we test drive this car today' (saturday, deserted showroom) - 'no' ....'why not' 'you'll have to call back in the week' - we walked out), Toyota (waited 55mins for a pre-arranged test drive, gave up and left the premises) Ford (ok, but couldnt be bothered to try and sell us something and terrible PX) Vauxhal (just ignorant, ' do you have a brochure?' Yes (points to brochures))

Only decent people were Audi - but the A4 estate wasnt big enough

As we were ready to spend 20k+ cash with these people, I couldn't believe how poorly we were treated

Ended up with Jarjar.com and bought an Smax, just got to wait until 20 oct for it.

Neil

 

I've had a bad experience with Bell&Colvill also.

Tried to feed me a load of rubbish about my modified exhaust causing the rear diff to overheat - heated discussion followed - never going there again, even if I do ever switch to a Lotus.

 

I had a similar experience 7 years ago, when i parked a 'Nova' outside and walked in wanting to test an Impreza.... they didn't seem too interested, they were quite shocked when i walked in one day and ordered a brand new one..... then for the next 6 months, whilst i waited for it to be delivered, i was driving a 50 quid banger of a mini, just to save money, i popped in several times, their reaction to that car was ... well, odd........ when i took delivery of the scoob, i asked if i could pay 'cash'.... they said no, cheque would be better, so i wrote one out there and then....

 

Dealer I used was good.

Got their attention when I offered to pay via Switch....

 

Try going back to the dealer roger has left now!!!!!!

 

Found them exactly s you did i think about 7 - 10 years back.

Could never return a phone call etc

 

its funny watching the faces of folk when you do this aint it
i had the pleasure of doing just that a few years back at the BMW dealership in aberdeen, just bought an m3 evo

'and how would sir like to pay for this?'

bearing in mind that i'm 6ft, shaved head and normal dress code is cargo pants an t-shirt

you should of seen the whiplash i caused when i said switch

people are a bit too quick to judge people

 

Absolutely.

Got told the salesman was "too busy to see a prospective customer, he's taxing cars," at a local, (Lincoln), Scoob dealer.

Too busy?

Alcazar